Study: Firms Struggle With End-User CRM Adoption

Forty-seven percent of companies surveyed by Boston-based AMR Research have faced serious challenges with end-user adoption of their customer relationship management programs, often jeopardizing these projects, the company said yesterday.

The results, part of a report titled "CRM: Inflicting Pain or Profit?" found that companies most often bought CRM to meet corporate needs but failed to consider the needs of the end users: employees, partners and customers. AMR Research compiled 80 interviews of the top 12 CRM vendors' customers.

The study found that to make CRM work, a balance is needed between corporate and end-user goals. It also found that when companies avoid end-user adoption problems, CRM deployments can be very successful, and that to increase the odds for success, buyers should plan their implementations from the end-user up.

The four main roots of end-user adoption problems are:

· End users being able to continue to perform their jobs and meet their goals and objectives without ever touching the system.

· Providing knowledge into the system makes end users feel less valuable to the company and augments their fear of being easily replaced.

· The lack of executive-level commitment throughout the software's life with the company.

· Companies push business process changes with the software without first getting user buy-in.

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